Thanks.
I no longer take orders and dont plan on ever going back to it. Too many bad experiences.

Yeah, after I posted I combed through some of your past threads and saw the one where you said you were quitting. Understandable but a shame. That body and with the headstock flipped the other way would be sick looking.

That's a fair enough reason to retire from it. Probably the biggest downside I would guess. Can I just ask what other downsides there as to building as a living?

Well, there are quite a few.
Biggest one is that if you arnt building a guitar that is already sold or commissioned, there is no guarantee that it will sell or that you will make a profit.

Then, there is time to profit ratio.
I build probably 10 times faster than 99% of builders. But even then, 2-3 guitars a month at most is still not that much of a profit to do it for a living. around 400$ profit per guitar at most, IF they sell. So there is no way i could rely on it for a living.

JW,
That is what i mainly do and have done for the past 7 years. It worked quite well for a long time, but recently even my best guitars i have made are taking forever to sell or arnt selling at all.

Well, there are quite a few.
Biggest one is that if you arnt building a guitar that is already sold or commissioned, there is no guarantee that it will sell or that you will make a profit.

Then, there is time to profit ratio.
I build probably 10 times faster than 99% of builders. But even then, 2-3 guitars a month at most is still not that much of a profit to do it for a living. around 400$ profit per guitar at most, IF they sell. So there is no way i could rely on it for a living.

This is true. I think once I'm into building properly then I've got potential customers my first load of builds, could be an issue in the future though.

I'd like to get up to your speed, and will probably end up focusing on one or two designs (I feel like Explorers will be one of them, mainly because of you ) and I'm hoping that focusing on a small amount of designs will help me get speed up.

Although I'm not ready yet, I hope I can make this work in the near future. I've got money in the bank from my last job, and a small part-time job to keep me going for the moment.

Well, there are quite a few.
Biggest one is that if you arnt building a guitar that is already sold or commissioned, there is no guarantee that it will sell or that you will make a profit.

Then, there is time to profit ratio.
I build probably 10 times faster than 99% of builders. But even then, 2-3 guitars a month at most is still not that much of a profit to do it for a living. around 400$ profit per guitar at most, IF they sell. So there is no way i could rely on it for a living.

JW,
That is what i mainly do and have done for the past 7 years. It worked quite well for a long time, but recently even my best guitars i have made are taking forever to sell or arnt selling at all.

It's kind of sad to hear stuff like that. But at the same time, it says a lot about luthiers who stick with their trade, despite not making enough money to survive from it. It's probably best for the end product to do it for the joy of building, rather than money.

Question(that you've probably been asked before), why Explorers? Do you like them so much that you can't get building them out of your system?

It's kind of sad to hear stuff like that. But at the same time, it says a lot about luthiers who stick with their trade, despite not making enough money to survive from it. It's probably best for the end product to do it for the joy of building, rather than money.

Question(that you've probably been asked before), why Explorers? Do you like them so much that you can't get building them out of your system?

Well, mainly because explorers sell the best. There is a huge market for them in the metal playing crowed. Mainly ESP and KL style explorers (which i am not allowed to make anymore)
James Het made the KL explorer and ESP explorer so popular, and there arnt really very many makers of GOOD explorers. So that is why they sell so well and i have always had great success selling them.